I have not been here for a while. In fact I am now in Tiberius waiting for Friday morning to head up into the Golan Heights and the Valley of Tears - all in northern Israel and to a certain extent a piece of Lebanon and Syria.
Expect to be here for one year minimum for sure and quite possibly two.
Had to leave the wife and kids at home for this show. So we burn up a lot of email. Hope to see them sometime next January or February if all goes well for a two week break.
Decided to drop in and see what was happening. I think I can speak on this topic with a fair bit of knowledge as among the many things I am involved with, I am also an F-18 pilot, I have been around cows all my life, I have trained international pilots including some of yours and I also ran one of the worlds largest international military flying exercises - in Cold Lake Alberta for several years.
Hope you folks do not mind me doing this - it is not a lecture - it is the other side of the story.
There are three real issues when training flights start up in a new area:
The first is noise.
Yup it is noisy. But the fact remains that there will be serious efforts made to try to get along "with the neighbours". Remember, most militaries know they have to have the locals on side - therefore they strive to ensure things go smoothly. If that means they have to restrict flights over a person's ranch or house at certain times of the year - a polite visit or letter or a friendly call to the commander will quite likely make this happen. And faster than you might realize. Just be kind enough to let them know when they can lift the restriction!
Training flights will always have certain altitude restrictions, certain speed restrictions and certain routing restrictions in order to make the most out of the flying training and at the same time keeping as many of the locals happy as possible. Sonic flight and associated noises will likely be restricted to very high altitude to minimize potential damage and once again keep the locals happy.
The second is low level flight.
While I touched upon it in the first section, the most important thing for all to remember is the USAF truly is a responsible organization and they will do their darndest to make as small an intrusion into your personal lives as they possibly can. It is quite easy to pick up the telephone and let them know you are moving cattle or you are branding and would appreciate them staying out of that part of the country for a couple of days. They will be happy to oblige.
The third is expedibles.
All fighter and tactical helicopter training involves the use of flares and chaff. Both are ejected from the aircraft to decoy enemy missiles away from the friendly aircraft. These can cause fires if ejected too low. The USAF knows this, as does every air force - so training rules will be in effect. This means there is an altitude restriction - usually a minimum of 4500 feet above ground. The flares are cool by the time they hit the ground and there is no fire risk.
Final comments
Will there be problems? Yup. Nothing runs perfectly and that is just the plain truth. But over time it will become less and less.
You know the guys and gals who do this flight training also want to be good neighbours. They know they are creating inconveniences to the locals but they also want to be able to walk down the street and hold their heads high - not having to worry about having as run-in with someone they p****d off last week out on their ranch. Or worse having someone pick a scrap with them over something they had nothing to do with - and yes that has happened as well.
So, rather than bench about what is going to happen, I believe the best way to solve the issue is to make a point of getting to know them. Invite the training squadron out for a branding - yeah - a bunch of green horns - but they will all be willing to get dirty and do the bull work as long as you show them what to do, feed them and talk to them. They know next to nothing about your operations - and you know next to nothing about theirs.
Next thing you know they will have a "locals come to town" and invite you to their place of work.
We did this in Cold Lake and while nothing ever runs perfect, I can honestly say that it ran very well - and the relationships we had with the locals was excellent overall.
Just my two cents.
Only 113 degrees here today - at 53 years of age I am getting used to body armor and a heavy pack - who says pilots only fly planes?
Best to all
BC
